One-penny MENERGY.

Lately I've been hearing about this book called Free: The Future of a Radical Price, by the editor of Wired magazine, which argues that "information wants to be free" and that, in the digital global economy, the best price is $0.00.

A review of the book mentioned a study in which participants were asked to choose between a 1-penny Hershey's Kiss and a 15-cent truffle. Most people took the truffle, presumably because it was better quality. But when they reduced the price of each candy by one cent - making the Hershey's Kiss free and the truffle 14 cents - the results flip-flopped: suddenly everyone wanted the Hershey's Kiss, just because it was free. There's something irresistible about "free," even compared to a token payment; that's also why a French version of Amazon's Super Saver Shipping, which offered shipping for the equivalent of 20 cents with a minimum $25 order, bombed, whereas the American version, which offers FREE shipping with a minimum $25 order, has sucked us all into adding on items to get to that magical total.

Anyway, that's what I thought of when I saw this not-quite-free offer for a new energy drink for one cent at AM/PM stores. Sure, a penny is such a pitiful amount that most people wouldn't even bother to bend over and pick one up off the ground; but it still creates a psychological barrier when cashing in freebies. What do you think - is $0.01 too much to pay for 16 oz of manly power? Your thoughts on free vs. cheap, in the comments!